Chat corner 32: High Republic

[annathecrow]

Welcome to this week’s chat corner!

Optional prompt

This week, the topic is the multimedia project “Star Wars: The High Republic”. First announced as Project Luminous, it started publishing in this year and consists of comics, novels, short stories, and more - probably the most well-known of which is the book “Star Wars the High Republic: Light of the Jedi“.

Have you read anything from it? Would you like to? What do you think?

Comments

[extrapenguin]

I haven't read any of it, but it's one of those eras I've added to my to-do list, since it sounds interesting. Does anyone have any reading lists of "you can skip this one", or are the books etc all quasi-standalones?

[annathecrow]

I've only heard about Light of the Jedi before I went googling, but kittywhite's comments has some insights if you haven't seen it yet.

[yourlibrarian]

I have not read anything in it and am also curious, particularly about the novel. Is it supposed to reflect what the prequel Republic series project is supposed to be about?

[kittywhite]

I’ve read Light of the Jedi, Into the Dark and some of The Rising Storm so far and mostly enjoyed them. There’s a few things however about this project I’m not enjoying. It’s mainly to do with the reading order and the fact that if you don’t read the comics or YA books you will miss things or run into spoilers e.g “hey what happened to that plot important character? Oh they died in the last YA book. Try to keep up”. There’s also too many characters (loads of them are non common alien species too) to keep track of and not enough description to easily visualise them. I’ve never had this problem with a Star Wars book before so I’m guessing they just expect you to read the comics.
There’s also the fact that everyone seems really uncomfortably horny in this series, like calm down. We don’t need every character to have a love interest or to talk about their previous relationships and experiences.
I am interested in the overall plot/setting and some interesting ideas have been set up but they need to pay off soon to keep my interest. It can’t just keep being “Bad Pirate Guys attack, Jedi show up”, we need to know exactly what they are after and why we should be invested in continuing to read.
I’m hoping the 3rd main line book “The Fallen Star” delivers on this but I have a feeling it will be a book filled with character deaths to set up the next phase of the project and we’ll have a timeskip so the Padawan characters can take over.

[annathecrow]

Oh no, Disney... this sounds a lot like the "event-itis" Marvel Comics have had for the last two decades or so. You'd be reading one title, when suddenly there would be An Event, and if you wanted to know WTF is happening, you'd have to go hunting across bazillion other titles (and good luck tracking down which ones you need).

I wonder if the older Star Wars multimedia projects were like this as well, or if this is really Marvel spreading the plague.

(The "uncomfortably horny" part is a big turn-off for me, honestly. If I want horny SW, fandom is right here XD.)

Thanks for sharing, it's great to get someone's thoughts like this.

[kittywhite]

Good point about Marvel, I’ve never had this problem before so I do think it’s something to do with that. I’m not much of a comic reader myself so I was hoping I wouldn’t be affected by choosing not to purchase them but unfortunately I have.
Yeah I don’t like the increased focus on romance new canon has, I’ve always found official romance in Star Wars to be poorly written (and sometimes offensive with the outdated tropes they love to use) but the Fan Fic writers actually know how to make it believable so I prefer their take on it.

[extrapenguin]

Oh dear, that sounds disappointing. I assume the uncomfortable horniness is also all heterosexual?

[kittywhite]

No, thankfully!
Equal opportunity horny!
There’s multiple Bi, Gay and Lesbian romances hinted at and they annoy me less than the main heterosexual pairing.
(I find the male Jedi in the het romance a bit of a sleeze and don’t like how the fandom finds it endearing rather than disrespectful. She said no pal, let it go and stop fantasising about her)

[annathecrow]

Equal opportunity horny!

Oh lol.

Cookie points to Disney though, I do appreciate the effort at diversity.

[fleurviolette]

Eh, I’m passing on those books. Sorry.

[annathecrow]

I might check it out eventually, but I admit it's not very high on my SW reading list. Unfortunately, I learned about Light of the Jedi on Tumblr and now I have it associated with people who are very Jedi-positive (and upset with people who are Jedi-critical), and since I haven't made my mind on the whole thing yet, I'd rather avoid it altogether.

[kittywhite]

It is very Jedi centric and we are clearly supposed to have a positive view of them as everyone so far who is Anti Jedi is an antagonist.
I’m not particularly liking this version of the Jedi Order because they seem very idealised and I can’t see so far how such a supportive order (they actually help their members who are struggling and encourage communication!) is going to become as restrictive as they are in the Prequels in such a short time. Something pretty tragic needs to happen for them to clamp down and I’m hoping it makes enough sense.
I do however get the feeling you can’t really criticise this series properly because of the backlash it got from certain people when it was announced, you get lumped in with them when there are legitimate concerns. I do find the diversity a bit forced, no problem with there being LGBT people or POC in Star Wars but it’s obvious they have an objective to include as many of those characteristics as possible and then as a white female myself it’s got me questioning why basically the only main white female human we have is in the traditional love interest role and is either being set up to die so a man can go to the dark side or will end up falling herself.

[annathecrow]

Huh. Honestly, I think I'm more interested in this whole thing on meta level than as a story. I'm curious how it all shakes down, what does it do to the Jedi Order lore, how will they handle the cast.